July 16, 2014 • ISSUE 33
Leaving business and home behind, Austin couple dove headfirst into making disciples.
WHERE CAN FATHERS LEARN TO BE FATHERS?
FORMER COWBOYS QB KITNA TO SPEAK AT SBTC MEN’S EVENT
Gary Ledbetter
Where can fathers learn to be fathers?
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recent NPR story played off some oft-cited statistics about the importance of fathers in the lives of their children. This one involved teaching men in Ohio how to be fathers—men who, in several cases, had never seen an example of a good father. In this story the relentlessly leftist voice of National Public Radio spoke as though men, and the difference between mothers and fathers, might be important in the lives of kids. That difference is occasionally downplayed as our cultural leaders go all in for same-sex families. There was even a bit of this mixed message present in President Obama’s use of these same stats during his Father’s Day speech. This president has been a predictable voice for gender confusion for the past two years at least. The left wing of our culture is on the horns of a dilemma. We are swamped by the swelling disaster of single motherhood and we know that children suffer more than financial loss when their fathers are out of the home. At the same time, acknowledging the unique role of fathers—an essential difference between men and women—does not support the metanarrative of “all families are the same” we are force fed on every hand. If men have something irreplaceably masculine to provide, then mothers have something irreplaceably feminine to contribute. Same-sex couples of either sex are thus less equipped to be good parents. No politician or academic with grandiose dreams will suggest such a thing in public. Sociologists Timothy Biblarz and Judith Stacey contend, for example, that “very little about the gender of the parent has significance for children’s psychological adjustment and social success.” Other pundits have suggested that two parents may be better than one but that women are better parents in singles or pairs. Lesbian couples are then the optimal parents. This is just the science of it, we’re told, objective and
enlightening. The secret to understanding these things may have something to do with outcomes prized by the researchers and their chorus line. Children raised by two mothers were less likely to be chauvinistic or experience physical discipline, for example. This contrast with heterosexual families was cited to show the advantages of lesbian parents. I might wonder if “chauvinist” means “conservative” or “traditional.” If so, of course kids raised in non-traditional homes will be less “chauvinist.” Does the unlikelihood of a spanking have to do with the typical parenting style of mothers or the requirement that adoptive parents not utilize corporal punishment? Either way, not everyone will see that as an automatic benefit to a child. Not all of us are sociologists. Leftists put a finger on the scale and call it science. But there is a word for your church and mine in this discussion. The fathers in the original story and a similar one I heard were in some cases the children of single, unwed mothers. Some of them were living with women to whom they were not married and the children of other men. Some were fathers to multiple children by multiple women and confounded about how to be fathers to them all. I wondered as I listened how things might have been different if churches had not become such a mixed bag of social ministry, therapeutic preaching, seeker sensitivity and moral timidity over the past 50 years. How might the lives of thousands of children have been changed? Men my age, in every community, were raised with the awareness that society expected children to follow marriage, and marriage to be a durable if not permanent commitment. Many of our children have grown to adulthood, and parenthood, without that awareness ever crossing their minds. The root of our cultural mores is a book of which they are completely ignorant, the story of a God of whom they know mostly falsehoods. To some degree that has happened because sinners reject the counsel of God but some of it has happened because God’s people have abdicated their roles as the salt of the earth and the light of the world. It is as though we are gone from the lives of most people and nobody remembers we were ever there. Where can a young man who has known no father see fathers trying to do a good job? Where can a couple see that love and commitment for a lifetime can bring joy? Where can they see femininity and masculinity lived out in mutual respect? Try my church or yours. Community centers, universities and counseling centers are poor alternatives. Not all of these families—mothers, fathers, children—will look and live, but some will if we take our lights from under the bushel.
CONTENTS ISSUE #33
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SBTC DR helps in flooding along border
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Former Cowboys QB Kitna speaking at men’s rally
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Young evangelicals defy sexual liberalism
Young evangelical Christians are defying America’s sexual liberalism despite predictions to the contrary, two Southern Baptist ethicists say in an op-ed based on a new study.
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CBF church ordains transgender pastor, formerly of Texas
COVER STORY
‘Lord, give us Austin’
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Allyson Robinson, formerly known as Daniel when the man served a Texas Baptist church, will serve Calvary Baptist Church of Washington, D.C. as its transitions pastor. The senior pastor who performed the ordination called it “a holy honor.”
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Barry Creamer elected Criswell College president
Barry Creamer, vice president of academic affairs and professor of humanities at Criswell College, will take office Aug. 1 as the new president of Criswell College. Trustees unanimously elected Creamer as the school’s seventh president during a special trustee meeting on July 5.
Disaster relief volunteers quickly mobilized after torrential rains along the Texas-Mexico border produced a meteorological encore to last year’s devastating floods.
The Real Men of Impact rally on Aug. 15 in North Richland Hills will feature former Cowboys QB Jon Kitna, Mesquite pastor Terry Turner and the Michael Armstrong Band. The free event is part of the SBTC Equip MegaConference.
18 The Barna Group asked professing Christians if they believed they had a personal responsibility to share their faith. Seventythree percent said yes. But only 52 percent reported sharing the gospel even once the previous year. Fred and Melissa Campbell of Austin would have been the outliers in that polling.
Petition to reverse Houston ordinance garners thousands of signatures
A coalition of pastors delivered a petition with 31,000 validated signatures to Houston’s City Hall on July 3, to call for a referendum to repeal a nondiscrimination ordinance passed last month.
TEXAN Digital is e-published twice monthly by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, 4500 State Highway 360, Grapevine, TX 76099-1988. Jim Richards, Executive Director Gary Ledbetter, Editor Jerry Pierce, Managing Editor Sharayah Colter, Staff Writer Russell Lightner, Design & Layout Stephanie Barksdale, Subscriptions Contributing Writers Paul F. South, Jane Rodgers, Dwight Baker, Joni Hannigan, Bonnie Pritchett To contact the TEXAN office, visit texanonline.net/contact or call toll free 877.953.7282 (SBTC)
Briefly /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// HOBBY LOBBY REVERSAL SOUGHT IN CONGRESS
YOUNG EVANGELICALS DEFY SEXUAL LIBERALISM
NASHVILLE
WASHINGTON
Congressional Democrats have set themselves against the Supreme Court in the battle over religious liberty, and the lead Southern Baptist spokesman on the issue is urging legislative leaders not to erode the First Amendment right. Democrats in the Senate unveiled a bill July 9 to counter the high court’s decision in support of the religious freedom of business owners in the controversial Hobby Lobby case. The Protect Women’s Health From Corporate Interference Act would bar any federal law, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), from exempting an employer from abiding by the Obama administration’s abortion/contraception mandate. That rule, implemented by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to enforce the 2010 healthcare reform law, requires employers to provide for their workers drugs and devices that can potentially cause abortions. Russell D. Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, called for leaders in both the Senate and House of Representatives to resist efforts to weaken RFRA, which requires the government to have a compelling interest and to use narrow means to burden a person’s religious exercise. There should not be “a toggle switch” that the government uses to decide “who may and may not exercise religious liberty,” Moore said in a statement for Baptist Press. “And as the Supreme Court rightly affirmed, American citizens do not forfeit their First Amendment rights simply because they engage in commerce. “And yet, now some would jeopardize religious freedom in order to fight their culture war,” he said. “Religious liberty is too important to everyone in this country to see it end up a dead trophy on the wall of the sexual revolutionaries.” In its June 30 opinion, the 5-4 Supreme Court majority relied on RFRA in ruling for the religious liberty rights of Hobby Lobby and other family owned, for-profit businesses that conscientiously objected to the mandate to pay for abortifacients. RFRA, a 1993 law that was approved nearly unanimously by Congress and signed into law by Democratic President Bill Clinton, protects the religious freedom of people by extending rights to the corporations they own, the court said. —TOM STRODE, BAPTIST PRESS 2 TEXANONLINE.NET JULY 16, 2014
Young evangelical Christians are defying America’s sexual liberalism despite predictions to the contrary, two Southern Baptist ethicists say in an analysis of a new study. Some Americans outside conservative Christianity have forecast young evangelicals soon will reject the church’s standards and join the culture in its liberal views on such issues as same-sex marriage, premarital sex and gender identity, Russell D. Moore and Andrew Walker wrote July 9 in a piece at National Review Online. That is not what research by a University of Texas sociologist indicates, they say. A study by Mark Regnerus, an author and associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas-Austin, suggests “churchgoing Evangelical Christians are retaining orthodox views on Biblical sexuality, despite the shifts in broader American culture,” Moore and Walker wrote. Moore is president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), and Walker is the ERLC’s director of policy studies. Among the study’s findings, according to Moore and Walker, are: 4Only 11 percent of evangelicals between the ages of 18 and 39 say they support same-sex marriage, while a “solid majority” of self-identified atheists, agnostics, liberal Catholics and liberal Protestants back it. 4About 6 percent of evangelicals support abortion rights, while more than 70 percent of their non-believing peers agree with such rights. 4Only 5 percent of evangelicals believe cohabitation by unmarried couples is acceptable, but about 70 percent of those who are religiously unaffiliated or consider themselves “spiritual but not religious” agree with cohabitation. —TOM STRODE, BAPTIST PRESS
AMERICAN BAPTIST CONVENTION-FOUNDING CHURCH ORDAINS TRANSGENDER WOMAN WASHINGTON
Allyson Robinson, formerly known as Daniel, has been selected by Calvary Baptist Church of Washington, D.C. as its transitions pastor. Duties of the temporary position will include preaching, mentoring and pastoral care, news reports said. Calvary is affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship but not with the Southern Baptist Convention, according to its website. Amy Butler, senior pastor of Calvary who is moving to Riverside Church in New York, blogged June 18 about the “holy honor” she believed it was to ordain Robinson at the church. The post includes Butler’s remarks from the ordination service. “Allyson Dylan Robinson is a minister of the gospel, trained for the task, and ordained to the gospel ministry by another community in which she has served as pastor,” Butler said in the ordination. “Over the course of her journey, God has invited her to step into the faithful witness of a new identity, a true identity, and a new name. While we have always known her as Allyson, she was ordained with a different name. And so, today, as witnesses to the ongoing work of God in her life, we want to pause to bless her, to reaffirm her ordination as Rev. Allyson Robinson, to add our voices to the many that witness God’s good work in and through her life.” Robinson graduated with a master of divinity degree from Baylor’s Truett Seminary in 2007 and from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1994. Robinson reportedly has a wife and children. The week prior to the ordination, the SBC held its annual meeting in Baltimore where messengers voted to reaffirm their stance on transgender identity being contrary to God’s plan for men and women as outlined in Scripture. —SHARAYAH COLTER, TEXAN
SOUTHWESTERN VP TAPPED AS MIDWESTERN’S NEXT PROVOST KANSAS CITY
President Jason K. Allen announced July 2 that Jason G. Duesing will join Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s administration in the role of provost beginning Aug. 1. Duesing will also bring his scholarship in the areas of church history and theology to Midwestern Seminary’s faculty. According to Allen, Duesing joining the Midwestern Seminary leadership team and faculty is a clear sign of God’s blessing on the institution and he will be instrumental as the school pursues its mission of existing for the local church. “Dr. Duesing is well known throughout Southern Baptist life—and the broader evangelical world—as a man with sterling character, as an accomplished theologian and church historian, and as one deeply committed to the local church and the Great Commission,” Allen said. Duesing comes to the Kansas City-based school after serving for more than a decade on the administrative leadership team and faculty at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. His various roles at SWBTS included assistant to the president, chief of staff in the office of the president, and most recently, vice president for strategic initiatives. Duesing also served as Southwestern Seminary’s acting provost during the 2011-12 academic year. In the classroom, he was assistant professor of historical theology. The newly appointed provost earned his Ph.D. in historical theology and Baptist studies from Southwestern Seminary in 2008. He also holds an M.Div. from Southeastern Seminary and a B.A. in speech communications from Texas A&M University in College Station In Southern Baptist denominational life, Duesing serves on the Southern Baptist Historical Library & Archives Advisory Board, on the Committee on Nominations for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, as a research fellow for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and on the board of directors for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. He is also a member of the Evangelical Theological Society. Duesing is married to Kalee, and together they have four children: Gracyn, Ford, Lindsey and George. —MBTS
CHURCH OF ENGLAND VOTES TO APPROVE FEMALE BISHOPS CANTERBURY, England
The Church of England’s General Synod voted July 14 to allow female bishops, a move supported by its leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. After the measure failed to pass two years ago, it sailed through the national assembly today with an overwhelming majority—351 members voted for it, 72 voted against, and 10 abstained.
—Briefly section compiled from Baptist Press, World News Service and staff reports
The Church of England paved the way for the ordination of female priests in 1975, although the first was not ordained until the early 1990s. Welby said it would not take that long for the church to see its first female bishop. He expects to appoint the first one by next year. Women now make up one-third of the church’s clergy. Other members of the global Anglican Community already allow female bishops, including The Episcopal Church in the United States, which is headed by a woman. —LEIGH JONES, WORLD NEWS SERVICE JULY 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 3
FORMER KENYA BAPTIST COLLEGE PRINCIPAL MURDERED MPEKETONI, Kenya
Kenya Baptist Theological College, a school run by the Baptist Convention of Kenya, announced on its Facebook page that its former principal, Enos Nambafu Weswah had been murdered July 5. Weswah was visiting the town of Mpeketoni and was one of 28 killed in the attack. According to news reports, Somaliabased terrorist group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the killings. In June, more than 60 people were killed in similar attacks in Mpeketoni. Weswah, who earned his master of divinity at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1985, began teaching at the Kenyan college in 1991, serving as registrar and deputy principal before being named principal in 2005. He retired from the school in 2010. The school offers bachelor’s degrees, diplomas and certificates in areas of theology, music, and educational ministries. Weswah is survived by his wife Ednah and daughter Yolanda. Details of funeral arrangements have not been released. —KEITH COLLIER, SWBTS
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ARCHAEOLOGY TEAMS CONTINUE WORK DESPITE ONGOING CONFLICT IN ISRAEL GEZER , Israel
Tensions and conflict between Hamas and Israel—including Palestinian rocket-fire on Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and Israeli air strikes on Gaza—have increased over the past week, but Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s archaeological teams at Tel Gezer, which lies between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, continue to work and unearth valuable historical data about the region. “Fortunately, our excavation camp and where we work are in low-populated areas, out of the target range and strategy of the rockets coming from Gaza,” said Steven Ortiz, professor of archaeology and biblical backgrounds at Southwestern. “Our dig house just happens to be a bomb shelter, so we have gone to the dig house when we heard the air raid sirens, and it is also open to other guests of the hotel and community. We are sensitive to all parties involved in the conflict, take every precaution and follow all directions from the Israeli government.” Ortiz co-directs the Tel Gezer Excavation and Publication Project along with Samuel Wolff of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The project enlists a consortium of schools, which includes Ashland Theological Seminary, Clear Creek Baptist College, Emmaus Bible College, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Lancaster Bible College and Graduate School, and Lycoming College. Additionally, Southwestern sponsors the Tel Gezer Regional Survey, led by Old Testament and archaeology professor Eric Mitchell. More than 100 professors, students, volunteers and nationals are involved in the project. —KEITH COLLIER, SWBTS
CP RECEIPTS NEAR 3RD QUARTER GOAL NASHVILLE
Contributions to Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministries through the Cooperative Program totaled 98.38 percent of the budgeted goal through the third quarter ending June 30, SBC Executive Committee President Frank S. Page has announced. The $141,298,445.60 the Executive Committee received during the first nine months of the fiscal year, Oct. 1 - June 30, for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget is 1.62 percent short of the $143,625,000 year-to-date budgeted amount. The total represents money received by the close of the last business day of
June and includes receipts from state conventions, churches and individuals designated for global and national Southern Baptist ministries. The total is $776,707.46 or 0.55 percent less than the $142,075,153.06 received through June 2013 of last fiscal year. Designated giving of $173,373,521.37 for the same year-to-date period is 1.89 percent, or $3,335,228.70, below the $176,708,750.07 received at this point last year. Designated giving only includes monies received and distributed by the Executive Committee and does not reflect designated gifts contributed directly to SBC entities. Designated contributions include
the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, Southern Baptist Global Hunger Relief and other special gifts. June’s Cooperative Program allocation receipts totaled $15,379,938.50. Designated gifts received last month amounted to $25,278,846.78.
JULY 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 5
Barry Creamer elected Criswell College president
Criswell College
By Jerry Pierce
B DALLAS
arry Creamer, vice president of academic affairs and professor of humanities at Criswell College, will take office Aug. 1 as the new president of Criswell College. Trustees unanimously elected Creamer as the school’s seventh president during a special trustee meeting on July 5. Creamer, 51, has taught at Criswell since 2004 and is a leading voice on cultural and theological issues, often addressing them on the radio program “For Christ and Culture,” which he hosts on KCBIFM in Dallas-Fort Worth. In 2009 he became academic affairs vice president in addition to teaching. Creamer succeeds Jerry Johnson, who left last October to become president of the National Religious Broadcasters. LifeWay’s president emeritus, Jimmy Draper, a longtime Texas pastor, has served as the school’s interim president. Draper said of Creamer in a news release: “The trustees of Criswell College made a significant choice today to elect Dr. Barry Creamer as the next president of Criswell College. He has poured his life into this school for ten years and has proven his ability as a scholar, administrator and effective leader. He has a brilliant mind with a compassionate heart. He values people and will lead by his example and with 6 TEXANONLINE.NET JULY 16, 2014
Criswell College trustees, led by Mesquite pastor Terry Turner, pray over the newly elected college president, Barry Creamer (center), during a special trustee meeting on July 5.
wisdom and grace. No better choice could have been made.” Prior to the vote, presidential search committee members lauded Creamer for his grasp of the college’s identity, being described by one committee member as “Criswellian” in his DNA. He earned a master of divinity there in 1994. He was also praised for his commitment to the classroom and to mentoring young men to preach the Bible expositionally, and as an “independent thinker” with “fresh ideas,” as a scholar-pastor who has debated the likes of Calvinist Baptist Mark Dever and leading atheist Sam Harris, and as a committed family man as attested to by his wife. Jim Richards, search committee chairman, said the committee looked at well over a dozen potential candidates, “many qualified,
godly men in the pool,” but were committed to dealing with only one man at a time in the process. “No one has a better grasp of Criswell College than Dr. Creamer. He understands the historic connection to its founder, Dr. W.A. Criswell,” Richards said in his opening remarks to the board. Additionally, Creamer, in his role, lives with the daily operation of the school, has been deeply loyal to it even when opportunities to go elsewhere have come, and has a vision for the school’s future ministry, understanding the challenges in expanding the curriculum and relocating the campus, Richards said. Joshua Crutchfield, search committee member and two-time Criswell graduate, told the board one of his fondest memories of studying under Creamer was
AT THE END OF THE DAY WE HAVE TO PUT OUT STUDENTS WHO ARE SHARING THE GOSPEL,
WHO KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO WITNESS TO PEOPLE, AND WHO GET THE MEANING OF THAT, WHICH IS SOMEBODY’S LIFE WAS MESSED UP, THEY MEET JESUS, AND THEN THEIR LIFE IS TRANSFORMED. THAT’S JUST MISSING FROM A LOT OF THINGS RIGHT NOW.” gathering with a group of students at Creamer’s house, “young men he was mentoring to preach and teach, working through Acts, working through a book of the prophets, hearing how they are developing sermon outlines, investing in these students. Incredible.” The admiration of fellow faculty and the school’s growth “is a large testimony to the kind of man Barry Creamer is,” Crutchfield added. Having served with him in the college’s executive cabinet after earning two Criswell degrees, Andrew Hebert, another search committee member, said he had seen Creamer “lead courageously” and that he would be ready from day one for the job. “Dr. Creamer understands the challenges that lie before us” and can articulate the past and the future as a “genuine pastor-scholar.” Having served the college faithfully and been the pastor of Woodland West Baptist Church in Arlington from 1987-2004, “I think Dr. Creamer has staying power, which is something we need,” Hebert said. Another search committee member and Criswell graduate, David Galvan, said it was telling for him to hear the heart of Creamer’s wife
Joan, who told the committee, Galvan said, that “she thought [leading Criswell College] was something God was preparing her husband for” through their years of ministry. Jack Pogue, longtime Criswell trustee, agreed with one assessment of Creamer as sharing the DNA of school founder W.A. Criswell, who espoused a vigorous pre-millennial eschatology, biblical inerrancy, and the idea “that Jesus Christ died for everybody.” Addressing the board just prior to his election, Creamer said his primary interest in serving the college in any position, but especially as president, stems from his conversion and the power of the gospel. “My life really was changed when I met Jesus,” Creamer said. “I want the gospel to go out. I want people to be changed. I want them to hear about Christ. At the end of the day we have to put out students who are sharing the gospel, who know what it means to witness to people, and who get the meaning of that, which is somebody’s life was messed up, they meet Jesus, and then their life is transformed. That’s just missing from a lot of things right now.” Also, Creamer said his commitment to the college dovetails with his commitment to the local church and that while the college seeks to expand its academic offerings, preachers “are still going to be the core of what we produce.” “While we’re developing these other programs and beginning to produce the kinds of people who can run a corporation or build a business,” the school must also equip them to “handle the Word of God with real confidence, to grasp what it actually means and to be able to teach that to their neighbor, to their Sunday School class, or sit down with their pastor and help him re-
turn from the brink, from heresy or error, which happens all the time.” “I think Criswell College can do that better than any other school, anywhere,” Creamer said. Additionally, Creamer said he is “very committed to the academy,” noting the school’s wide influence, especially in the Southern Baptist Convention in the last 40 years. “That kind of influence has to come somewhere for the culture at large, and it’s not happening yet,” Creamer said, describing his vision for turning out culture-changers able to influence the world in the same way the school influenced the SBC during the Conservative Resurgence. ‘That’s what we are trying to get at. That’s what we’re trying to build,” Creamer said. Creamer earned a Ph.D. in humanities with a philosophy and history emphasis from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). He graduated summa cum laude with a master of divinity degree from Criswell in 1994 and a bachelor of arts in English from Baylor University in 1985. He has served churches in a variety of roles since 1982. While teaching adjunctively at Texas Woman’s University in Denton and at UTA, Creamer was pastor of Woodland West Baptist Church for 17 years. He is a member of Lake Highlands Baptist Church in Dallas and has been married to Joan for 31 years. The couple has four adult children. The members of the Criswell search committee were: Jim Richards, chairman, Joshua Crutchfield, Andrew Hebert, David Galvan, Keet Lewis, Jack Pogue, trustee chairman John Mann, and committee alternate Paul Pressler. Creamer’s presidency begins officially on Aug. 1. JULY 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 7
Fol owing and making followers By Dwight Baker
Fred and Melissa Campbell, seen here posing in front of the sign at their home church, Great Hills Baptist in Austin, sold their home and prosperous business to make disciples full time in the Austin area, winning and equipping them to do likewise.
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Forsaking a prosperous business and a home to make followers of Jesus, Fred and Melissa Campbell of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin are working hard to multiply the gospel in the liberal mecca of the Southwest. he Barna Group, the well-known Christian researchers, asked professing Christians in 2013 if they believed they had a personal responsibility to share their faith with others. Seventy-three percent of born-again Christians said yes. But only 52 percent of Christians polled reported sharing the gospel even once the previous year. Fred and Melissa Campbell of Austin would have been the outliers in that polling. Fred’s former career was in underwater video, sonar technology and acoustic positioning systems. In 1999, he founded a company that produces force measurement systems for
DESPITE TEXAS BEING FIRMLY BIBLE BELT COUNTRY, THE CAMPBELLS LEARNED THAT 92 PERCENT OF THE NEARLY 2 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE AUSTIN AREA WERE UNCHURCHED.
numerous industries while Melissa was a nurse in an intensive care unit. The Campbells were already involved in evangelism ministry at Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, now pastored by Danny Forshee. As rapidly as their business grew, so did their burden for the people of that city proud of its weirdness. Despite Texas being firmly Bible Belt country, the Campbells learned that 92 percent of the nearly 2 million people in the Austin area were unchurched. In 2007, they began to pray the words of Caleb in Numbers 13: “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” While Caleb was talking about claiming the Promised Land through battle, the Campbells yearned to win Austin for Christ. Soon they were spending so much of their time out in the city evangelizing, God moved to free up even more of their time. “When God opened the door for the business to sell, we did not hesitate to believe it was him,” Fred said. “We were not focusing on selling the business. We were focusing on praying that God would forgive us, transform us, and make us more like Jesus. The company was already debt free, and business growth was strong, but he had transformed our hearts to be broken for those far from him.” Surrendering to the ministry brought about more changes. Not only did God give them more time to minister, he moved to increase their financial resources by selling their home. “We were already all over the
city and through prayer over a period of months we sought God as to where he wanted us to live,” Fred said. “He led us to the largest apartment complex in the city where there are more than 4,200 adults from over 50 countries. So we sold the house and moved intentionally into this community. The location is also just a few minutes from our church.” Fred tapped into his business acumen and designed a leadership structure that would be scalable to any size as the ministry grew. Rather than just doing the typical door-to-door method of passing out tracts and asking if they could talk about Jesus, they chose to exhibit God’s grace by offering people two things: Prayer for any needs they had, and free breakfast burritos. After getting the prospect’s first name, they would ask, “Joe, if God could do a miracle to meet a need you have right now, what would that be, and could we pray about that for you right now?” A majority accepted the offer, Fred said, and after the prayer they left. A couple of weeks later they returned to those who responded positively, reminding them of who they were and then sharing the gospel. “With this approach we found that 80 percent would either accept Christ or accept our offer to return again a week later for another story,” Fred said. In February 2013, a pastor invited the Campbells to something called T4T training (Training for Trainers) offered by Jeff Sundell. An Asian American missionary named Ying Kai JULY 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 9
“I just think it is remarkable that they would sell their business and even their beautiful home and move into an apartment so they could be near those far from God. They lowered their standard of living so they could raise their standard of giving for the salvation of the lost. I wish every church had a Fred and Melissa Campbell.” —DANNY FORSHEE, PASTOR OF GREAT HILLS BAPTIST CHURCH IN AUSTIN
developed T4T (t4tusa.com). The program is an evangelism and church planting tool to train a growing number of church planter trainers. The Campbells have been using this organization’s method ever since. It is also being used by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. To give an idea of how rapidly the ministry has grown, Fred reported that “in April 2013, after mapping the greater Austin area into regions, we sent out the first 40 teams of two to search for potential houses of peace in 12 areas. They found 400. We formed more than 60 new groups within 60 days of this first search, and additional searches in August and November identified 150 more potential houses of peace. As of December 2013 we had more than 10 TEXANONLINE.NET JULY 16, 2014
This T4T training in November drew several dozen participants who practiced engaging others with the gospel and with conversations that can lead to spiritual dialogue. Through the T4T training, participants ask those they encounter for the opportunity to return to a house or apartment to talk more about Jesus and the gospel. Over several mutually agreeable visits, many people come to a point of decision about Jesus Christ, often surrendering their lives to him.
100 groups.” Given all this growth, evangelism still didn’t come easy for Fred’s wife Melissa. “Growing up, I was extremely shy and introverted. Over time and through the nursing profession I learned to at least be able to talk to people, but I continued to keep to myself and work behind the scenes,” she said. When their church adopted the FAITH evangelism strategy, she agreed to go along with Fred provided he would do all the talking. “But then I began to understand that the Great Commission was for me to obey just like everyone else. I rationalized for many years that I wasn’t gifted in evangelism,” Melissa said. “But once I started sharing the gospel, I felt like I had been ripped off for so many years. What I had thought would be too scary and impossible to do actually
turns out to be the abundant life God talks about in the Bible.” The couple emphasized that things changed rapidly once they agreed to surrender all to Christ and his work. More time in obedient witnessing led to less time at work, so God arranged for more time by orchestrating the sale of Fred’s business. They prayed to be intimately involved in the community, and God moved them into the community. “I just think it is remarkable that they would sell their business and even their beautiful home and move into an apartment so they could be near those far from God,” Forshee, their pastor, said. “They lowered their standard of living so they could raise their standard of giving for the salvation of the lost. I wish every church had a Fred and Melissa Campbell.”
Once a fearful witness, now an overcomer By Joni B. Hannigan
FEAR GRIPPED MELISSA CAMPBELL’S HEART AS SHE STOOD AT THE DOOR. ACROSS THE THRESHOLD STOOD A SELF-PROFESSED ATHEIST WHO JUST THE WEEK BEFORE SAID THERE HAD TO BE A “CATCH” TO THE EVANGELISTIC TEAM’S VISIT TO HER AUSTIN HOME. The fear had begun several hours before with unbidden thoughts: “No one’s receptive. They don’t want to hear. I am just going to be pushy.” Melissa and Fred Campbell, members of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, are using the T4T method of church planting and discipleship promoted by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board and Greater Europe Mission to reach Austin and other cities for Christ (see related story). Campbell remembered shaking off the thoughts and reciting Acts 1:8 out loud: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Moments later the woman ushered Campbell’s team inside her house for the second time—this time, however, sensing there was no “catch.” Sharing a biblical story
This family of new believers practices sharing their own stories of conversion using the T4T method of witnessing. The week after this photo was taken, they took their new faith to their dad’s brother’s family, and they each signaled a desire to follow Christ.
from Luke 7, Campbell listened as the woman told her there were “many reasons” she could not pray. Sensing the woman’s confusion, Campbell was patient. She returned with her husband, Fred, for several weeks, each time sharing more with the woman about the claims of Christ. Finally, one night the woman’s tone changed, and the team was greeted with a Nativity scene in the living room. They learned the woman prayed to receive Christ in the early hours of that morning. From there, she stepped onto a road of discipleship at her apartment building which lasted several months until she relocated to another part of the state. “It’s stuff like that, that happens
“The fun we had growing up as a family was us, as a family, serving other families.” —MELISSA CAMPBELL
all the time,” Campbell said of her new commitment to evangelism and discipleship. “I can’t believe the relationship I have with [God] now, versus sort of sitting there in fear.” The once-atheist woman is just JULY 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 11
one who comes to mind when Campbell thinks about how many others have responded since she and her husband, out of obedience to God, left their 3,800-square-foot home behind to make themselves more available by living in a large, diverse apartment community in the city. One younger Hispanic woman— probably in her 20s—seemed reassured that Campbell, and not just her husband, affirmed what was being shared. “She was relating to me woman to woman,” Campbell said. “I remember asking the Lord to give me the words to say.” Campbell said that while it might be difficult for some families to make the transition to full-time ministry by selling homes and businesses, her three adult daughters and 9-year-old son have taken the changes in stride. “The fun we had growing up as a family was us, as a family, serving
other families,” Campbell said. Despite having financial resources, the family has lived simply, she said. The Campbells’ one married daughter is a teacher, and the other two daughters are both seniors in college—one at the University of Texas and the other at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor. Their son, Joshua, recently went on a training mission with them and wrote his father a note afterwards: “Thank you for taking me to the training to learn about the Almighty King.” Watching people answer the claims of Christ and grow through discipleship while at the same time realizing she has worked through her own fear of sharing Christ has been an unexpected gift to Campbell. “I started noticing that when I participated in what God was doing on a daily basis, I was having to rely on him for the words to say to
overcome my fear,” Campbell said. “Sometimes I still go in fear, and that’s where he meets me.” Through it all, however, Campbell describes a supernatural peace that comes from knowing she is doing the right thing and from knowing in advance what she has been prompted to say through evangelism and discipleship training. “My walk with [Christ] changed,” Campbell said. “I thought that fear would be something I would never be able to overcome. He proved himself very faithful to meet me exactly at my point of need, and he would literally deliver me. It’s like the Bible sort of came alive.” Living in an international community of 4,200 adults, Campbell said she recently began a Bible study with a Muslim and a Hindu. “For us, our fun is what we are doing,” Campbell said. “Talking about Jesus is fun for us, and advancing the kingdom is our hobby. This is what we choose to do.”
august 14-16
North Richland hills baptist church
FRIday evening
REAL MEN OF IMPACT
RALLY 7:00 - 9:15 pm
47% of Christians
said pornography is a major problem in the home
12 TEXANONLINE.NET JULY 16, 2014
The statistics show there is an epidemic among men in our churches with pornography and sexual addiction. The Real Men of Impact Rally is designed to challenge and help men understand that their hope for overcoming any addiction can only be found in Christ.
40%
72%
of sex-addicted males will lose their spouse
JON KITNA
Former NFL & Dallas Cowboy Quarterback
TERRY TURNER Pastor, Mesquite Friendship BC
of pornography viewers are men
RYAN RUSH Pastor
MICHAEL ARMSTRONG Worship
SBTC DR helps in flooding along border Mexican Baptist DR trained by SBTC launches first self-directed deployment amid floods By Jane Rodgers
D EAGLE PASS
isaster relief volunteers quickly mobilized after torrential rains along the Texas-Mexico border produced a meteorological encore to last year’s devastating floods. Rainfall of up to 16 inches on June 19-20 flooded homes and forced state and federal highways closed. DR volunteers from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention were concentrating on two of the areas hardest hit: the Eagle Pass subdivision of Elm Creek and the town of Quemado in northern Maverick County, said Scottie Stice, SBTC off-site disaster relief coordinator. Through more than a week of ministry, DR volunteers recorded 11 salvation decisions—a high proportion of conversions compared to the number of work orders they completed, Stice said. Work from seasonal flooding along the border doesn’t usually require large-scale mobilizations, but it is some of the most spiritually fruitful work DR engages in, he said. SBTC director of chaplains, Gordon Knight, arrived in the area June 23 to lead a combined group of SBTC and Texas Baptist Men volunteers. By June 27, TBM workers redeployed to disaster relief in the Granbury/Cleburne area while 15-17 SBTC volunteers remained to finish the work
DR volunteer Wayne Barber shares the gospel with Edmundo Fuentes, brother of flood victim Joshua Fuentes. PHOTOS BY RICK LINTHICUM A headline in the local newspaper The News Gram noted the SBTC’s disaster relief efforts following the flooding near Eagle Pass and Quemado.
DR volunteers worked quickly to remove personal belongings from Quemado resident Elvira Langley’s home.
JULY 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 13
DR chaplain Donnie Carpenter talks to flood victim Elvira Langley about the hope found in Christ.
along the Texas border, Knight said. First Baptist Church of Quemado hosted the SBTC DR volunteers, with Knight praising the church and its pastor, Brouning Lentz. SBTC chaplains, assessors, mudout, operations and feeding teams deployed to the area, removing debris and damaged sheetrock, and applying Shockwave, a mold prevention treatment. A tragic part of this DR deployment is the fact that many victims who were being helped were among last year’s victims as well, noted Knight, who told of assessing the home of a woman helped by the SBTC in 2013. “She had just gotten her house back together. Last year we took her sheetrock off the walls to the ceiling. This year, it had to come off about two feet. That is the heartbreaking thing about this. They get the thing finished and the next year, here it comes and they’ve got to do it all over again,” Knight said. Another issue has been the loss of livestock, which hurts a family’s livelihood, he added. Such adversity brings discouragement and vulnerability. “While we were assessing the damage to one family’s home, our 14 TEXANONLINE.NET JULY 16, 2014
Darryl Cason, on-site leader and DR chaplaincy coordinator, speaks to the disaster relief teams during the evening devotional the night before they finished their deployment near Eagle Pass.
chaplains talked to them about their relationship with the Lord. Two sons and their mother wound up receiving Christ,” Knight said. Across the border, Brigada Esperanza, the Mexican Baptist disaster relief organization long assisted by the SBTC, ministered to flood victims in Ciudad Acuna, in the state of Coahuila, in its first-ever independent deployment. “At the time Quemado and Eagle Pass were flooded, 12 colonias or neighborhoods in Ciudad Acuna flooded as well. Fifteen-hundred families lost everything; another 3,000 had water in their homes,” Stice said. “We have been working with Brigada Esperanza for several years to get their disaster relief ministry launched, patterned after ours, and they are doing this deployment completely on their own,” Stice said. Luis Martinez, director of Brigada Esperanza, confirmed that Mexican DR volunteers were serving 2,500 plates of food per day, prepared by the Baptist churches in Acuna. Brigada Esperanza also served up the Bread of Life, with at least 22 professions of faith reported, said Jim Richardson, SBTC DR director.
THOSE FAMILIAR YELLOW SHIRTS Flood victims in the border town of Quemado have become all too familiar with the bright yellow shirts worn by the SBTC Disaster Relief volunteers in recent years as floods continue to plague the small community north of Eagle Pass. Summer often brings to this small farming community torrential rains that overpower irrigation canals and leave homes flooded with no reprieve. This community, mostly low-income families and migratory farmers, does not have the means or resources to recover on their own. SBTC Disaster Relief teams are able to move in quickly and help reduce or eliminate bacterial molds that grow due to home flooding. They are also able to consult and console distraught families. Volunteer chaplains with the SBTC are able to share the hope of the gospel through the services the DR teams provide. —RICK LINTHICUM
Former Cowboys QB Kitna to speak at SBTC men’s event Theme calls for men to be wholly committed to Christ in pursuit of holiness. By Paul F. South FORT WORTH—Inside the church walls and beyond, sin’s hold on men is epidemic. But against the cultural currents, an August men’s rally in the DallasFort Worth area aims to help men pursue holiness in Christ by being wholly committed to Christ. The Real Men of Impact rally at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 15 at North Richland Hills Baptist Church will feature former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna as the keynote speaker. Terry Turner, pastor of Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church in Mesquite, will also speak, and the Michael Armstrong Band will perform.
The event, with free admission, is part of the SBTC’s Equip MegaConference. “We’re really dealing with this idea of calling men to be completely in step with Christ,” said Lance Crowell, SBTC director of discipleship ministries. “Part of the struggle for men is they are not fully in step with Christ and as a result there are areas of their lives that actually are being ravaged by sin that keep them from ministry and a lot of other good things.” Crowell added: “I think a lot of the struggle in many churches where there are not enough men
stepping up in some ways is because the men have sin issues that just hold them down very heavily and keep them from being involved in other aspects of ministry or really being who God is calling them to be.” Kitna, the 2003 NFL Comeback Player of the Year as a quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, played as recently as last year in a reserve role for the Dallas Cowboys. The 41-year-old Kitna, a graduate of Central Washington University, began his professional career with the Seattle Seahawks. In recent years, Kitna has shared his faith
WANT TO GO? The Real Men of Impact Conference will be 7–9:15 p.m. Friday, Aug. 15
at North Richland Hills Baptist Church in North Richland Hills. Former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna will be the keynote speaker. Pastor Terry Turner of Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church in Mesquite will also speak. Dinner is optional for $5 if pre-registered. Admission is free, but registration is required. To register, visit sbtexas.com/EQUIP.
JULY 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 15
at a number of churches in Texas and elsewhere, Crowell said. But Kitna’s message will be more than a personal testimony. “We believe that Jon is going to challenge men to be who God’s called them to be,” Crowell said. “We really like that. He has been in a lot of locker rooms with guys who have run after the things of the world and come back empty-handed. This idea of him challenging them to be fully committed to Christ, we think he’s a perfect fit for that.” Men struggle with a variety of challenges—from pornography, to business ethics, to other attacks on marriage that some have called “the secret sins.” For example, according to surveys, nearly one in two Christians–47 percent—say pornography is a major problem in their home, Crowell said. “That’s almost one in every two Christians saying that,” Crowell noted. “It’s definitely more pervasive than we’re willing to let on, and part of the reason that we’re not seeing a lot of spiritual growth and development is because there’s sin in the camp that just is not allowing for growth and other things that need to take place in the lives of families because they’re just ravaged by sin. “The reality is that if you want to impact whole families you must reach the men. Most of the time you cannot reach the entire family through the children or even the wife. But if you are able to reach a man’s heart often his family will follow as well.” “How big is the dad’s spiritual impact on the home? It’s massive,” Crowell said. Scott Maze, pastor of North Richland Hills Baptist, hopes the annual event will plant the seeds for a forest of spiritual giants. He cited God’s mandate in Psalm 78:4-5. “We want to see men who are California redwood, spiritual-stature strong in Christ. Not like a bonsai tree, not a dwarf tree but someone who’s strong in following the Lord, in leading. God has designed men to lead,” Maze said. Men need to focus on what Maze called “the cardinal issues”—that God is central to life, that God has laid out a blueprint for successful men and families in his Word, and that men are commanded by God to teach that blueprint to their children. “When they do that, the families will gravitate toward that conviction. It will change the direction and trajectory of families for a long time,” Maze said. God’s Word commands men to follow Christ’s 16 TEXANONLINE.NET JULY 16, 2014
MEN, PORNOGRAPHY & SEXUAL ADDICTION The statistics show there is an epidemic among men in our churches with pornography and sexual addiction. The Real
Men of Impact Rally is designed to challenge and help men understand that their hope for overcoming any addiction can only be found in Christ.
47%
of Christians said pornography is a major problem in the home
40%
of sex-addicted males will lose their spouse
72%
of pornography viewers are men
example, to be affirming, loving and generous, not a “get-off-my-lawn grouch.” “For a man to be who God wants him to be, he’s got to be wholly in step Christ, and only through that can he be holy in practice,” Crowell said. “We want to challenge him to be committed to Christ in all things and let the Holy Spirit do his work.” While the conference is free, registration is required. For more information, go to sbtexas.com/ Equip and look for the Real Men of Impact link.
QB Kitna: Godly men losing influence By Paul F. South In an increasingly secular world, Christian men are losing their influence. And while events like the “Real Men of Impact” conference at North Richland Hills Baptist Church can have influence, it’s not the complete remedy, said NFL veteran quarterback and former Cowboys backup Jon Kitna. Kitna will be the keynote speaker at the Aug. 15 conference, sponsored by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. “In terms of a conference like this, it shouldn’t be viewed as ‘the fix,’” Kitna said. “It should be a mountaintop experience, something that can inspire you to return to your first love, which should be Jesus Christ.” Godly men are losing in America, Kitna said. “It’s not much of an argument or much of a surprise to say that as a whole, men are losing in America, which is playing out in our communities, in our churches and in our families and our workplaces, because men have circumvented their rightful place as the leaders in our society,” Kitna said in a phone interview. “We’ve given up that role because of sin, and we’re not in an intimate relationship
Jon Kitna teaches math in the Tacoma (Wash.) Public Schools in 2011. Kitna, a former NFL quarterback and Cowboys backup, now teaches and coaches at a Christian high school in Washington. He will speak during an SBTC men’s rally at North Richland Hills Baptist Church on Aug. 14. PHOTO COURTESY OF TACOMA PUBLIC SCHOOLS
with Christ, day in and day out.” Kitna’s message is that even with the seemingly daunting mountain of problems facing American homes, churches and society, God is faithful. “The reality is, God in the past in difficult times changed whole societies through the righteousness of a very few men that were willing to stand up for him,” Kitna said. “That’s the message I’m going to focus on at the conference. Your individual walk can influence so many around you, which then influences our churches, our communities and our workplaces.” Men are not being pastors in their homes, Kitna said, leaving young men who are growing up without a clear understanding of the Bible, or a clear understanding of who God really is and what his attributes are. The result is losing. The result is the destruction that we’re seeing on a daily basis.” But the tide can be turned, Kitna said. For us to start winning and to start taking back the ground the enemy has taken, we have to be more like Christ.” Genuine manhood means that men are filling the roles represented in four pillars: Prophet,
priest, protector and provider in our homes. Across his football career, Kitna shared the locker room with men who seemed to have the world on a string, with the money and fame that life in the NFL can bring. He’s seen some of those same men leave the playing field with empty bank accounts, and more importantly, empty hearts and lives. “If anything is your identity that isn’t based on the cross of Christ, sooner or later you’re going to come to the end of that and be left with an identity crisis,” Kitna said. “Certainly the NFL is that way, and it happens much faster, because NFL careers are so short.” For most men, however, that identity crisis hits at 40 or 50. “Christ’s position as the number one in our lives cannot be replaced by anything,” Kitna said. “When it is, sooner or later we come to the end of that and that’s when you have the destruction we’re seeing.” At North Richland Hills, Kitna will talk about those four pillars of real manhood. “We’re in a society that lacks that. We need to take back our rightful place as godly men in our society. It starts with our individual lives.” JULY 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 17
Petition to reverse Houston ordinance garners thousands of signatures City has until Aug. 4 to validate the signatures that could place the issue before voters this fall
A group of Houston pastors deliver 31,000 signatures requesting a referendum on Houston’s controversial nondiscrimination law.
By Bonnie Pritchett
A HOUSTON
coalition of pastors delivered a petition with 31,000 validated signatures to Houston’s City Hall on July 3, to call for a referendum to repeal a nondiscrimination ordinance passed last month. The pastors say the ordinance would infringe on religious liberties and create untenable and potentially dangerous situations for women and children in public restrooms. If the petition signatures are validated by the city, the measure will be voted on in November. Just days before the ordinance’s passage, more civic and church leaders publicly stated their opposition. Ed Young, pastor of Second Baptist Church and former Southern Baptist Convention president; David Fleming, pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church; and Robert Sloan, president of Houston Baptist University joined the coalition of pastors declaring the ordinance, at its core, a threat to religious liberties. Pastors and members of African American, Vietnamese, Hispanic and Anglo congregations rallied for weeks against the ordinance 18 TEXANONLINE.NET JULY 16, 2014
that passed June 4 and which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. They said Mayor Annise Parker, a lesbian, ignored public objections to the ordinance in pursuit of a personal agenda. Ordinance opponents argued the ordinance could force business owners to choose between compliance with the law or their religious convictions. They say that in opening public bathrooms to men and women presenting themselves as the opposite sex, potential sexual predators could use the law to take advantage of would-be victims. “[W]e simply say, ‘Allow the people to vote on this ordinance,’” Max Miller, president of the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston and Vicinity, said in a press conference before presenting the signatures to City Secretary Anna Russell. Miller is pastor of Mount Hebron Missionary Baptist Church. Miller’s comments drew rebuke from a group gathered in support of the ordinance. Opposing coalitions have formed around this issue, each claiming majority support from Houstonians. Miller, also representing the No UNequal Rights Coalition, said prior to the ordinance’s passage, polling by the coalition showed 82 percent of Houston registered voters opposed the law. He said 10,000 calls and emails from constituents were received by city council members demanding they vote against the measure. The mayor cited wide public support as well, saying during the press conference that a host of civic and business leaders back the measure. “We will have the same outcome that we had around the council table,” Parker said to cheers from supporters gathered around the podium in the City Hall rotunda. The Equal Rights Houston Committee was formed to promote the ordinance. Parker called ordinance opponents “obsessive,” accusing them of fixat-
ing on only the accommodations for gay, lesbian and transgender individuals, especially their access to public bathrooms and locker rooms. She said it always has been and will continue to be “illegal for a man to go into a women’s bathroom. Period.” But according to opponents, the homosexual and transgender accommodations are what spoil the ordinance. They say the other enumerated characteristics (e.g., race, gender and ethnicity) are already protected under city, state and federal laws, making Houston’s ordinance redundant and simply a means of adding sexual orientation and gender identity to a list of established protected characteristics. Opponents also say the ordinance provides special rights, not civil rights, hence the charge of “unequal rights.” Parker accused the pastors of lying to promote their campaign. “Houstonians will not be fooled by misinformation, hyperbole. I would use the word ‘lies’ but I’m going to back off from that,” she said. Parker also assailed the referendum process, calling city charter requirements a “low bar.” In order to call a referendum, 10 percent of Houston’s registered voters must sign the petition. The No UNequal Rights Coalition needed 17,269 signatures and gathered 50,000. Of those, the coalition validated 31,000. The city secretary’s office has 30 days to cull through the signatures to determine which are valid. The city council will authorize the results. Parker complained that the process will cost the city money as employees will have to be paid overtime to meet the Aug. 4 deadline. With enough validated signatures, the City of Houston legal
department will craft the wording for the ballot. “This is going to be another battle,” said local political consultant Ron Jackson, who was hired by the Houston Area Pastor Council (HAPC) to direct the No UNequal Rights Coalition. Jackson, owner of JPBE Consulting, said he expects the Parker administration to draft language putting the ordinance in the best possible light, expunging any references to its controversial tenets regarding homosexuality and transgender accommodations. Working frequently on civic and
“WE ARE STANDING ON A CLEARLY BIBLICAL, DEFENSIBLE POSITION.” —DAVE WELCH, HAPC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
political campaigns with Houston’s African American church leadership, Jackson created ties making him privy to the development of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance—called HERO by its supporters—prior to its public dissemination. Knowing it would be of concern to them, he shared the information with the pastors. Jackson takes the No UNequal Rights Coalition campaign professionally and personally. Along with other ordinance opponents, he accused Parker of dismissing legitimate concerns and using her office to advance a personal agenda in support of the LGBT community in Houston and in the nation. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a powerful international organization lobbying for similar ordinances in cities around the country, worked in Houston for the
ordinance’s passage. The HRC used the same tactics in San Antonio last year in the creation and passage of an almost identical ordinance. The law duplicates existing federal, state and local laws but adds sexual orientation and gender identity to a list of 13 other protected citizen classes. It is the equivocation of civil rights based on the immutable characteristics of race and gender with characteristics based on behaviors that opponents, especially African Americans, say they find “patently offensive.” In a letter to the Greater Houston Partnership, a business consortium that endorsed the measure, HBU’s Sloan wrote: “Ours is not an arbitrarily understood position, nor is it socio-politically neutral; and the proposed ordinance is not ideologically, or theologically, neutral. It attempts to coerce, by legal definition, our adherence to beliefs and practices with which we profoundly disagree.” Anticipating Parker would press for the ordinance once elected to her third and final term as mayor, HAPC fought to unseat her in the November 2013 election. Despite their efforts, Parker defeated eight opponents, winning 57 percent of the vote. Dave Welch, HAPC executive director, said a variety of dynamics come into play when promoting an individual for public office, including a candidate’s poorly run campaign. “If they run a terrible campaign, the churches can’t shore that up. But this is an issue, not a person,” Welch said. An idea is more clearly promoted and public opinion is on his group’s side, he said. “We are standing on a clearly biblical, defensible position,” Welch said. JULY 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 19
Burleson church distributes its ‘My Son’ film on DVD By Jane Rodgers
R
BURLESON
etta Baptist Church will distribute 1,000 DVDs of the film “My Son” beginning July 20 at the church. The feature-length movie the church produced received an unexpected R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) last summer, becoming the first Christian film to be so rated and drawing national media attention. “We have been told that the news coverage brought us exposure that would have cost thousands of dollars,” said Retta Baptist Pastor Chuck Kitchens, the film’s executive producer. Challenging the R rating proved prohibitive for “My Son” producers, since the MPAA could not confirm what changes needed to be made for the film to earn a PG-13 rating. With a volunteer cast and crew and low budget, “My Son” producers lacked the resources or time for significant re-editing. So the film stands. The R rating has not stopped “My Son” from receiving invitations to Christian film festivals. Actress Kate Randall was even named “Best Actress in a Leading Role” at the inaugural Churches Making Movies Christian Film Festival in Clark, N.J., in October 2013. The film was 20 TEXANONLINE.NET JULY 16, 2014
also screened this April at the International Christian Film Festival in Orlando, Fla., said director Jarod O’Flaherty. The rating has been problematic, however, in getting a wide distribution to Christian consumers. “My Son” continues to be screened in theaters nationally, but plans for a broader distribution in Christian bookstores were derailed because of the R rating, said Michael Dennis, Retta Baptist minister of discipleship and administration and the film’s production manager. Negotiations with two companies to distribute the film have ended. “Both companies we negotiated with to distribute ‘My Son’ were hesitant about putting significant financial and creative resources into elevating the film’s quality,” said Dennis, who confirmed that the refusal of a major Christian bookstore chain to carry any Rrated film affected the decisions of the distributors to withdraw from negotiations with the church. Despite the obstacles, plans for the film’s distribution continue. This month, copies of “My Son” on DVD are being made available to church members to “hand-deliver to their lost family and friends,” Dennis said. “Our members can request up to three free copies to give to lost friends, family members, co-
workers or neighbors,” O’Flaherty said. “The DVDs will contain a brief scriptural message explaining how the story of the film relates to the gospel of Christ. We will ask members to supply us with the name or initials of those to whom they give the free DVDs,” said O’Flaherty, noting that members, cast and crew were expected to purchase their own copies of the film. “‘My Son’ was a purely evangelistic endeavor from the beginning and we believe that giving away free copies so that people can hear the gospel is the least we can do to that end,” said Dennis, who noted that the church plans a launch party where members will receive the DVDs. “We will also print another 500 DVDs, which we will be selling on Amazon,” Dennis said. Thus the film will receive national distribution, and proceeds from the Amazon sale will be used to pay for the free DVDs and production and distribution of additional copies. Amazon will offer “My Son” for sale a week after the church’s distribution, O’Flaherty said. Copies of the DVD will also be available for sale at the church, and Dennis said they are seeking other distribution avenues including Amazon Instant Video, Netflix and Redbox.
Russell D. Moore
The road to Jericho and the border crisis Haga clic aquí para acceder a este artículo en español.
A
merica’s southern border is engulfed in a humanitarian crisis, as refugees fleeing violence in Central America, many of them unaccompanied children, seek safety. As Christians, we must recognize the complexity of this situation and what it means to be people of justice and mercy. I say that the situation is complex because some Christians would like a simple fix. Some would, it seems, like to hear that some organized mission trips to the border would alleviate the crisis here. This ignores the depths of the problem. There is good work caring for human need at the border, much of it by Christians, but until the United States government steps in to solve the presenting problem, the crisis will go on. Some would suggest that the border crisis should make us more fearful of immigration and of immigrants. This shows us, they would say, that the border is porous and any reform of our immigration system would lead to more children in harm’s way. But, as the New York Times pointed out, these children (and their mothers) fleeing from Central America is a very different problem from that of Mexican migrants seeking work and opportunity. The problem is more akin to the situations we’ve seen on the African continent, with warlords dealing in human trafficking. These children and families are fleeing a drug war exploding in violence all around them. Moreover, it’s the incoherence of the immigration system that fuels the problem, thus empowering the cartels and the traffickers. Immigration reform isn’t about making immigration easier. It’s about making the system coherent, so that we know who is here lawfully, and who isn’t. That done, reform is to try to make
a way for those here under our “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to come out of the shadows and, where possible, make things right. As Christians, we don’t have to agree on all the details of public policy to agree that our response ought to be, first, one of compassion for those penned up in detention centers on the border. These people are not seeking the overthrow of our government; they are, most of them, seeking the sort of freedom and opportunity they have heard is characteristic of the American project. When responding to the vulnerable, our greatest obstacle isn’t the question of knowing what to do. Our greatest obstacle is fear. The Samaritan in Jesus’ parable (Luke 10:27-37) has every reason to be afraid on the road to Jericho. The presence of a beaten man tells him there are robbers around, potentially hiding in the caves nearby. Fear, though, is cast out by love; love is not cast out by fear. The Samaritan has no reason to claim accountability for this terrorized neighbor. He does so because he treats him, a stranger, as though he were kin. The lawyer questioning Jesus rightly sees this as showing mercy (Luke 10:37). And Jesus says simply, “Go and do likewise.” That’s why Christians are at the border, ministering to people. And that’s why all of us should be praying for those in harm’s way on the border, and those trembling in fear in violence-torn Central American countries, as well as those exploited by traffickers and cartels. The situation at the southern border is frightening indeed, for multiple reasons. Border security is important for the physical safety of any nation, and the care of those fleeing danger is important for the moral integrity of any people. The gospel doesn’t fill in for us the details of how we can simultaneously balance border security and respect for human life in this case. But the gospel does tell us that our instinct ought to be one of compassion toward those in need, not disgust or anger. The border crisis will take careful work by government leaders. And it will take a church willing to pray and to love. Our answer to the border crisis cannot be quick and easy. But, for the people of God, our consciences must be informed by a kingdom more ancient and more permanent than the United States. Our response cannot be to say, in Spanish: “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). —Russell D. Moore is president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
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